Khan Noonien Singh

Appearances

Khan Noonien Singh first appears as a villain in the 1967 "Star Trek" episode "Space Seed." He is a genetically engineered superhuman, part of a group created to surpass normal human limits. After the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s, these superhumans were overthrown. Khan was the most successful conqueror among them and also the most benevolent ruler, governing over a quarter of Earth from Asia to the Middle East between 1992 and 1996 with a firm but mostly peaceful rule until he was removed from power.

Most of the supermen were killed or executed, but Khan and 84 others escaped Earth on the sleeper ship SS Botany Bay. In 2267, the Enterprise crew finds the ship, with Khan and 72 of the original 84 still alive in cryogenic suspension. When Khan's chamber fails, he is brought aboard the Enterprise, wakes up, and learns he is in the 23rd century. He charms the ship's historian, Marla McGivers, and studies technical manuals to plan a takeover.

McGivers helps him revive the other superhumans, and Khan attempts to seize control. He threatens Captain Kirk's life by placing him in a decompression chamber, but McGivers frees Kirk. Kirk uses neural gas to subdue Khan's followers. Khan then tries to destroy the ship by setting the engines to self-destruct, but Kirk stops him.

Kirk sentences Khan and his people to exile on the empty planet Ceti Alpha V. Khan accepts this fate, comparing himself to Lucifer from Milton's Paradise Lost, and McGivers chooses to join him instead of facing a court-martial.

Development

Writer Carey Wilber pitched "Space Seed" to producers Gene Roddenberry, Gene L. Coon and Robert H. Justman with an 18-page outline dated August 29, 1966. The outline envisioned the Botany Bay crew as criminals sent on a 1,500-year journey, with Khan represented as a Nordic criminal named Harald Ericsson. In memos dated September 7 and 9, Coon suggested significant changes, wanting the character to be a worthy adversary for Kirk, "in fact very similar to James Kirk, our captain, except that our captain has made an adjustment to this world and this culture."

The first draft introduced the character as John Ericssen, revealed to be a man involved in "The First World Tyranny" named Ragnar Thorwald, who was more brutal than the final Khan. NBC censors would have required punishment for a murderer, so the character was softened. By the final draft, Khan is Indian; a character guesses he is from Northern India and "probably a Sikh." Khan's full name was based on Kim Noonien Singh, a pilot Roddenberry served with during the Second World War; Roddenberry hoped the similar name might attract his friend's attention.

Analysis

Khan has been compared superficially to Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of the "Übermensch" (superman or overman), being mentally and physically superior to any normal human. In the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Borderland", another superman quotes Nietzsche, telling Archer that "Mankind is something to be surpassed." Professor William J. Devlin and coauthor Shai Biderman examined Khan against the Übermensch and found that his blind pursuit of revenge contradicts Nietzsche's ideals of transcendence and self-creation, offering Spock's self-sacrifice in The Wrath of Khan as a better example.

Reception and legacy

Critics praised Ricardo Montalbán's portrayal of Khan. The Associated Press observed that the quality of a Star Trek film often depended on the threat of its antagonist, and Khan ranked among the franchise's best. A 2002 assessment of the films declared him the greatest enemy in any of them. Reviewers of The Wrath of Khan, including Roger Ebert, considered Khan one of the movie's strongest elements.

Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote that Montalbán's performance "was the only validation he has ever had of his power to command the big screen." Critic Christopher Null stated that it is "nearly gospel now among Trekkies that... Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the undisputed best of the series," and called the role the "greatest role of [Montalbán's] career." Author James Iaccino noted that while he found the villain V'Ger more intellectually engaging, most fans and viewers preferred the classic good-versus-evil conflict between Khan and Kirk.

Later Star Trek films were judged against Khan's standard; Paramount promised audiences that the villain in Star Trek Generations would match the genetic superman. IGN ranked Khan as the top Star Trek villain, highlighting that he established the template for revenge-driven antagonists. Producer Rick Berman described the character as "threatening and memorable." Beyond the series, the Associated Press labeled Khan "one of sci-fi's great villains."

In 2002, the Online Film Critics Society voted him the 10th-greatest screen villain of all time, the only Star Trek character on the list. In 2006, Emmy Magazine named Khan "TV's Most Out-of-This-World Character," surpassing characters like the Doctor and Commander Adama. The editors noted that "Khan was so cool we would've bought a Chrysler Cordoba if he'd told us to," referencing Montalbán's car commercials. A clip of Kirk screaming "Khaaan!" from The Wrath of Khan became a popular internet fad that helped drive the success of the website YTMND.